Tape breaker (case 1)

ABSTRACT

A breaker for separating individual spools of slit and rewound gummed paper. A roll of spools is passed between a moving surface and a complementary fixed surface. The surfaces are flat at the entrance and gradually curve an increasing amount to the point of discharge. Since the roll of spools can not conform to the curved surfaces they tend to separate from each other.

United States Patent [191 Coffman 11] 3,728,772 [45] Apr.

[ TAPE BREAKER (CASE 1) [76] Inventor: Robert B. Coffman, 1405 Spring Beach, Cary, Ill. 600l3 22 Filed: Oct.26, 1971 21 Appl.No.:192,034

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2/l969 Parshall ..29/239X 6/1969 Wollam ..29/239 Primary Examiner-Robert C. Riordon Assistant Examiner.l. C. Peters Attrney-Gradolph & Rogers [57] ABSTRACT A breaker for separating individual spools of slit and rewound gummed paper.

A roll of spools is passed between a moving surface and a complementary fixed surface. The surfaces are flat at the entrance and gradually curve an increasing amount to the point of discharge. Since the roll of spools can not conform to the curved surfaces they tend to separate from each other.

3,268,135 8/1966 Barradell ..225/2 4Claims,5Drawing Figures .2. 102 86 75 4 2 72 f0 \\\74 76 11,6 {5e 0 e 1/@ f P- 60 (3k 10 "I 66 62 q :TJEFELZ-; E Q E EE I if A Ti l I I I g5 12 14 -fl fig z -22 f2 F6 2/5 Z6 f0 O; *if fi i f L 2 Hui in. 12? 27a 16 14 i Patented April 24, 1973 3,728,772

-2 Sheets-Sheet 1 'llll Patented April 24, 1973 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 TAPE BREAKER (CASE 1 SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In making spools of gummed paper in 1 to 4 inch widths, for instance, it is the practise to pass wide rolls through a slitter and rewind the paper on individual spool cores arranged side by side on a mandrel. In the course of such rewinding, the edges of the spools become somewhat interlaced, and the separation of one spool from another becomes a matter of considera ble difficulty. The problem has been met by manually hitting each spool free from its associated roll. Automatic flailing machines have been devised to strike each spool of a reintegrated roll, but such machines can deliver only one blow to a spool which may not be enough to detach it, and readjustment of the flail is necessary as the width of the spools vary.

This invention contemplates apparatus which will certainly and positively separate the spools making up such a roll, make such separation at the same rate of speed as the rolls are slit, and handle rolls without ad justment regardless of the width of spool they are subdivided into. To this end, the rolls, formed of a succession of stuck-together spools, are placed transversely on a longitudinally moving belt which is initially flat, but as longitudinal movement progresses, assumes a greater and greater transverse curvature. Above the belt is a complementarily curved stationary belt. Thus, as the belt rolls the collective spools against the stationary belt, a continuous separating thrust is applied to the increment of the spool periphery in contact with the moving belt against the fulcrum of that increment in contact with the stationary belt to continually urge the separate spools apart, and this relationship is continually rolling such that the separating pressure is applied to each increment of the circumference of the rolls to detect and work upon the weakest area of engagement between two adjacent spools and progressively work two adjacent spools apart.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a side elevation of a tape breaker assembly embodying this invention;

FIG. 2 is an elevation of the right half of the discharge end of the machine of FIG. 1 looking at the machine of FIG. 1 from the left end thereof, the left half being substantially identical;

FIG. 3 is a simplified perspective view of the belts of the apparatus;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a gummed tape roll as it comes from the slitter; and

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the roll of FIG. 4 in the process of breaking illustrating the separation of the roll into individual spools.

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The machine of FIGS. 1 and 2 comprises a rectilinear frame including exit and entry end corner posts 12 and 14 tied together by lower stringers 16. A pair of horizontal rails 18 are secured on each side of the machine, each to span and extend beyond its associated exit end corner post 12 and entry end corner post 14 above the stringers 16. An upper stringer 20 spans the entry end comer posts at the level of the rails 18.

An entry end belt roller 22 is joumaled for rotation as at 24 between the ends 26 of the rails 18 protruding beyond the entry end corner posts 14. A discharge or exit end belt roller 28 is joumaled for rotation as at 30 between the ends 32 of the rails 18 extending beyond the discharge end corner posts 12. This extension of the ends 32 is substantial so as to permit the discharge of the separated spools onto a cross conveyor (not shown). A driving roller 34 is joumaled for rotation as at 36 in a pair of ears 38 affixed to the exit end corner posts 12 well inside the projecting rail ends 32. The driving roller has a sprocket 40 at one end thereof. A motor 42 and gear box 44 mounted on a platform 46 supported by the stringers l6 drive the sprocket 40 by a driving sprocket 48 and chain 50.

A belt tension roller 52 is mounted in take-ups 54 carried on beams 56 extending outwardly from the exit end comer posts 12 under the ends 32 of the rails 18. A two-ply canvas belt 58 extends from the top of the entry roller 22 to the top of the exit roller 28, follows around the exit roller through 180 to reverse its direction, around the driving roller 34 reversing direction again, around the take-up roller 52 to again reverse direction, and thence back to the underside entry roller 26.

Directly under the run of the belt between the entry roller 22 and the exit roller 28 is a belt shaper 60. It is a rectangular or slightly trapezoidal member formed to be flat at the entry end and to be increasingly downwardly transversely curved as it approaches the exit end. The flat entry end 62 is attached to the upper edge of the upper stringer 20 as by welding or the like. The exit end 64 is supported by a vertical plate 66 having a concave upper edge and a pair of laterally projecting ears 68 secured as by welding to the inside surfaces of the exit end comer posts 12. The exit end is so located that the low central point 70 thereof is about as far below the line of the belt 58 extending between the entry roller 22 and the exit roller 28 as the upper edges 72 thereof are above that line. The belt shaper, of course, underlies the belt run between those rollers. There may be intermediate vertical supporting plates having concavities in their upper edges formed to fit the belt shaper at intermediate points along its length to provide additional support for the belt shaper, which in turn may be connected to the stringers 16. Since, however, the shaper can be built of sufficiently strong stock to not require these, they have not been shown.

The belt and belt shaper cooperate with an upper bed 74 to effect the breaking of the tape rolls. The bed is a rectangular or trapezoidal metal sheet shaped to be complementary to the belt shaper with a flat entry 'end 76 and a downwardly convex exit end 78 having a low central point 80 and high upper comers 82. The flat entry end 76 is secured to the underside of a transverse bar 84 which threadedly engages at its ends adjustment screws 86 mounted to the entry end corner posts 14. By this mounting, the gap between the belt and the upper bed can be adjusted to admit tape rolls of varying diameters.

The exit end of the bed is secured at its edges to a transverse bar 88. The exit end corner posts 12 terminate at the top edges of the rails 18, and on top of these two members are a pair of spaced bored upstanding ears 90. Levers 92 have sleeves 94 at their lower ends which are contained between the sets of ears by pins 96 to mount the levers for pivotal movement. Vertical sleeves 98 are slidable on the levers and have lateral sockets 100 extending therefrom which receive the ends of the bar 88. Sleeve-like stops 102 are situated below the sleeves 98 on the levers. A key 104 is contained in the stops and cooperates with notches 106 formed in the levers to situate the stops at any desired location. Compression springs 108 are contained between the tops of the sleeves 98 and nuts 1 to urge the bed 70 resiliently downward.

On its under surface, the bed may have a series of wires 112 welded thereto in a chevron-like arrangement diverging toward the exit end. The underface of the bed is covered with belting material of, for instance, the same type as the moving belt 58. The belting may be applied -to the surface by adhesives or clamping along theedges or both. It will be appreciated that this belting is fixed with respect to the undersurface of the bed 74.

It is believed that the operation of the machines will be evident from the foregoing description. As the slitter completes each roll 116, it will be introduced into the entry end of the tape breaker on that part 26 of the moving belt 18 extending outward from the corner .end of the bed 74, and possibly at once if the bed clearance is exact, but certainly as the curvature of the bed and the belt as imposed by the belt shaper increases, the roll will encounter the belting surface of the bed and thereafter make rolling contact with it. As the roll then rolls along, increasingly -greater curvature is imposed on it dictated by the adjustment of the springs 108. Initially, of course, the bed will bear on the center of the roll and the belt on the ends thereof until a first breakage occurs, and thereafter the effect will be slowly distributed over all the spools of the roll as further separations occur. The advantage of the rolling contact with the stationary bed and the moving belt will be particularly noted. As joined spools of tape traverse the machine, each marginal point of the area of interconnection will be tested and worked on and weakened successively until finally a separation will occur at the point of weakest interconnection and the spools thereafter separate readily by a rolling wedging action. The spools will be discharged into a cross conveyor underlying the discharge end 18 of the machine. It will be appreciated that the failure of any two spools to separate can be readily detected by simple inspection of the contents of the cross conveyor and those spools rejected. The chevron shaped ridges of the belting on the bed imposed by the underlying wires 112 assist in the separation of the spools from each other.

The adjustable stops 102 are present, of course, to support the discharge end of the bed comfortably above the moving belt 58 and also to reduce impact and clatter when one roll is discharged from the machine and there is no intermediate roll within the machine. Likewise, the levers 92 are provided to ac commodate the small angle of arcuate movement of the exit end of the bed.

The discharge end of the belt shaper 1S situated as it is with respect to the belt line connecting the entry and exit belt rollers the bottom center being about as far below that line as the top comers are above to minimize stresses on the belt. With the passage of each paper roll, the center of the belt and the margins thereof are stressed about equally but in opposite directions.

It will be appreciated that an embodiment only of the invention has been described above. Obviously, many variations in structure could be practised including reversals and inversions of the functional elements. The bed and belt shaper could easily be formed by a series of small elements extending either transversely or longitudinally, rather than sheets, if suitably reinforcedlclaim: v

1. Apparatus for separating stuck-together spools in a roll which comprises means providing a pair of surfaces adapted to move relatively oppositely longitudinally with respect to each other spaced to receive and rotate a roll transversely therebetween, said surfaces being arranged to impose increasingly an arcuate curvature on said roll in the course of said rotation.

2. The combination of claim 1 wherein one of said surface-providing means is a stationary bed and the other .of said means is a moving belt.

3. The combination of claim 2 including means for shaping said belt to have an increasing transverse curvature in the direction of belt travel and said bed is complementary to said shaping means.

4; The combination of claim 1 wherein one of said surface-providing means is a moving belt having a transversely flat line of entry and guided to have a progressively increasing transverse curvature to a point of discharge and the other of said means is a stationary bed formed to be complementary to said guided belt surface spaced from said belt surface to receive closely a roll. 

1. Apparatus for separating stuck-together spools in a roll which comprises means providing a pair of surfaces adapted to move relatively oppositely longitudinally with respect to each other spaced to receive and rotate a roll transversely therebetween, said surfaces being arranged to impose increasingly an arcuate curvature on said roll in the course of Said rotation.
 2. The combination of claim 1 wherein one of said surface-providing means is a stationary bed and the other of said means is a moving belt.
 3. The combination of claim 2 including means for shaping said belt to have an increasing transverse curvature in the direction of belt travel and said bed is complementary to said shaping means.
 4. The combination of claim 1 wherein one of said surface-providing means is a moving belt having a transversely flat line of entry and guided to have a progressively increasing transverse curvature to a point of discharge and the other of said means is a stationary bed formed to be complementary to said guided belt surface spaced from said belt surface to receive closely a roll. 